Department of Health and Social Care

Health Visitors

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of health visitors (a) in England, (b) regionally and (c) in each local authority area in each year since September 2009.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics for England. These include only staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers. Some other organisations also provide health visiting services, so the data held by the Department only reflects part of the picture on overall health visitor numbers. The following table shows the full time equivalent (FTE) figures for health visitors for England and for each Health Education England region as at 30 September in the specified years:  2009201020112012201320142015201620172018England8,1007,8497,8027,6878,3049,16210,2369,5218,4977,884Of which  East Midlands619615631630685741826791742619East of England784778698522594668777744663628Kent, Surrey and Sussex553518507420469550671635562519North Central and East London384403389406433553670630443427North East488501571596659673672422346166North West1,3861,3291,3171,4141,4631,6021,7931,7331,6741,586North West London298237237351425470511506498510South London444434430361334388458420366328South West663663599452599565619412370312Thames Valley337324307348336347389364324275Wessex326308323360394457554514489446West Midlands8898728959181,0391,1971,2871,2371,0911,027Yorkshire and the Humber9298678989088759531,0091,1139291,041Source: NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics, NHS Digital NHS Digital began to collect and publish data on staff, including health visitors, in some English independent sector healthcare organisations, from September 2015. These statistics are collected biannually and published as experimental statistics. The following table shows the FTE figures of health visitors employed by Independent Healthcare Providers in England who provide valid data, as at 30 September each year since 2015 and the latest data available: 20152016201731 March 2018England9571,1321,2401,187Source: Independent Healthcare Provider Workforce Statistics, England, March 2018, NHS Digital Information is not held centrally on number of health visitors in each local authority area.

Department of Health and Social Care: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

Stephen Hammond: At Autumn Budget 2017, HM Treasury made an additional £3 billion of funding available over the next two years – £1.5 billion in each year – so that Departments and the devolved administrations can continue to prepare effectively for European Union exit. In the Spring Statement on 13 March 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Elizabeth Truss MP) laid a Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, setting out the full Departmental allocations of the £1.5 billion for 2018/19. HM Treasury approved £21.1 million of funding for the Department of Health and Social Care preparations for EU exit in 2018/19, including planning for the United Kingdom leaving the EU without a deal. Spend against this allocation for 2018/19 will be included in the 2018/19 financial accounts. The Department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.

Department of Health and Social Care: Refrigerators

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) his Department and (b) NHS England has spent on refrigerators in the last 12 months.

Stephen Hammond: As part of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit contingency planning a tender process to procure additional warehouse space for stockpiled medicines, including ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage, was undertaken in October 2018. Contract agreements for storage, including refrigerated storage have recently been signed. The refrigerated storage will cost circa £1 million. NHS England does not hold data on its spend on refrigerators in the last 12 months.

Eating Disorders

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what  steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times between referral and the start of treatment for adults with eating disorders.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time between GP referral and the start of NHS treatment is for adults with eating disorders.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The average waiting time between general practitioner referral and the start of National Health Service treatment for adults with eating disorders is not collected. NHS England has recently completed a national review of adult eating disorder services. Data collected is being reviewed with stakeholders to inform NHS England’s understanding of the finance and workforce gaps in these services. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published its updated clinical guideline for the recognition and treatment of eating disorder for people over the age of eight, including adults, in May 2017. The guidelines specify that if an eating disorder is suspected following initial assessment, the individual should be referred immediately to a community-based, age- appropriate eating disorder service for further assessment or treatment.

Drugs: Manufacturing Industries

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of producing generic medicines and insulin in the UK as a solution to the potential availability and pricing issues caused by the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: There is already considerable manufacturing of generic medicines in the United Kingdom, but the majority of generic medicines are manufactured abroad, both in the European Union and beyond. For insulin, there is very little manufacturing in the UK and most of it is manufactured in the EU. The Department has put plans in place for the continued supply of medicines after the UK leaves the EU, focused on those medicines that are imported from the EU. This includes pharmaceutical companies stockpiling an additional six weeks’ supply and prioritisation of medicines and medical products at the border. Increasing manufacturing of generic medicines and insulin in the UK is not a short-term solution as this would require companies to invest in, set up and license manufacturing facilities in the UK as well as applying for marketing authorisations, all of which take years. In addition, there is insufficient evidence that this would result in lower prices compared to manufacture abroad.

Health Services: Weather

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the NHS's preparations for winter.

Stephen Hammond: This Government recognises that winter, with demand placed on services with colder weather and seasonal flu, is a challenging time for the National Health Service as it is for health services around the world. Ministers meet weekly with our systems leaders in the NHS to ensure that our services are equipped for winter to support those who need them. This year the Government has supported the NHS with more than £420 million of winter funding. Although we are at the start of the winter period, the latest published NHS winter operational updates show that in December there have been fewer ambulance handover delays and diverts to other accident and emergency’s compared to last year. This means ambulances spend less time at hospitals and more time on the roads reaching patients. On 7 January 2019, I laid a written ministerial statement HCWS1232 which sets out our preparations to help the NHS this winter.

NHS: Waiting Lists

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of referral to treatment waiting times.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the pledges set out in the NHS Constitution on waiting times are met.

Stephen Hammond: The NHS Constitution clearly describes the right of patients to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. This year, the Government recognises that the standard of ensuring at least 92% of patients start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks is not being met. However, at present, over one million National Health Service patients start planned treatment with a consultant each month and the majority are seen and treated within a maximum of 18 weeks. Furthermore, we have reduced the number of people waiting the longest (over 52 weeks) to start treatment from almost 18,500 in 2010 to just under 3,000 in October 2018. For 2018/19, the Government has provided the NHS with an additional £1.6 billion to support and improve accident and emergency and elective care performance. Furthermore, the NHS Long Term Plan will set out how the NHS will develop over the coming years. This will be supported by an extra £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24.

Mental Health Services: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the capacity of the mental health workforce.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government recognises the need to increase the mental health workforce to deliver its ambitious mental health transformation programme. To ensure that the National Health Service has an adequate workforce, Health Education England (HEE) published ‘Stepping Forward to 2020/21: The Mental Health Workforce Plan for England’. This plan sets out the Government’s ambition to deliver 21,000 new posts, professional and allied, across the mental health system, with the expectation that 19,000 of these places will be filled by staff employed directly by the NHS. The plan aims to increase the size of the mental health workforce through increased recruitment, improved retention and through development of new roles and ways of working to improve efficient use of the most qualified staff. A Mental Health Workforce Delivery Group, chaired by HEE and attended by the Department and its arm's-length bodies, was established shortly after publication to oversee implementation of the plan, through regional sustainability and transformation partnerships.

Social Services: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for the social care of (a) older people and (b) working-age disabled adults.

Caroline Dinenage: During this Parliament, Government has taken steps to address the immediate pressures on the social care system, including giving councils access to up to £3.6 billion more dedicated funding for adult social care this year, which councils can use to provide vital services for older people and working age disabled adults. In addition, the budget announced a further £650 million to improve social care services and help reduce pressures on the National Health Service by supporting older people, people with disabilities and children in 2019-20. An additional £55 million of capital funding in 2018-19 for the Disabled Facilities Grant to provide home aids and adaptations for disabled children and adults on low incomes was also announced at the budget. In the longer term the Green Paper will consider the fundamental issues facing adult social care system, while funding for future years will be settled in the Spending Review where the overall approach to funding local government will be considered in the round.

Drugs: Refrigerators

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of refrigerators purchased for the preservation of medicines as part of contingency planning in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal up to 20 December 2018.

Stephen Hammond: As part of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit contingency planning a tender process to procure additional warehouse space for stockpiled medicines, including ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage, was undertaken in October 2018.

Cannabis: Mental Illness

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS patients are suffering from psychosis related to their use of cannabis.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information requested is not held centrally.

Abortion

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many abortions were performed after 20 weeks in each of the last five years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The following table shows legal abortions at 20 weeks gestation and over, for residents of England and Wales, 2013-17YearTotal abortionsNumber 20 weeks and over% 20 weeks and over2013185,3312,7531.52014184,5712,7691.52015185,8242,8771.52016185,5963,0331.62017192,9003,5641.8Source: Department for Health and Social Care annual abortion statistics for England and Wales

Foetuses: Pain

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the point at which an unborn child can experience pain.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department has made no such assessment. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist’s guidance, ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, published in 2010, concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to 24 weeks of gestation. This guidance is available at the following link: https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf

Foetuses

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the point at which an unborn child is able to recognise light.

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the point at which an unborn child's heart begins to beat.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department has made no such assessment.

NHS Trusts: Greater London

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding his Department has allocated to each NHS trust in London in each year since 2010.

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding has been approved by his Department for Barking, Havering and Redbridge Universities NHS Trust in each year since 2010.

Stephen Hammond: The attached table shows the capital funding allocated to each National Health Service trust in London, including Barking, Havering and Redbridge Universities NHS Trust, in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2017-18 inclusive. Due to the way in which some funding was recorded in 2010-11 and 2011-12, it has not been possible to separate revenue and capital funding. Because of this, some funding has been excluded from this table for these years and is shown by an asterisk.



PQ204366,204368 attached table 
(Word Document, 27.1 KB)

Compulsorily Detained Mental Patients

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to bring forward legislative proposals to improve the protection of the rights of people subject to the provisions of the Mental Health Act 2007.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the timetable for his Department to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for the Government's response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act published on 6 December 2018.

Jackie Doyle-Price: We welcome the publication of final report of the independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983, which was commissioned by the Prime Minister. The Government will consider the report and its recommendations in detail and respond in due course. We remain committed to reforming mental health law and have committed to develop and bring forward legislation when parliamentary time allows. We have already accepted two of the recommendations of the review; the establishment of new statutory advance choice documents, so that people’s wishes and preferences carry far more legal weight, and the creation of a new role of ‘nominated person’ to be chosen by the patient to replace the current nearest relative provisions. This will support the review’s overall purpose of increasing patient rights and improving the way the Act works for people.

Radiology

Siobhain McDonagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newly qualified radiologists there have been in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The number of doctors who received certificates of completion of training in radiology are shown in the following table. Number of newly qualified radiologists in England between 2014 and 2018Year20142015201620172018Radiologist qualifiers176162168171166Source: Health Education England

Maternity Services

Siobhain McDonagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has allocated to NHS midwifery services in each of the last 10 years; and how that funding was spent by those services.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS England does not allocate funding directly to midwifery services, therefore the information requested is not centrally held. Commissioning decisions are made locally by clinical commissioning groups.

Accident and Emergency Departments: Standards

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the A&E four hour waiting target to be met 95% of the time.

Stephen Hammond: The Government’s Mandate to NHS England for 2018-19 sets out the timetable for the accident and emergency (A&E) waiting time standard to be improved. 2018/19 year to date figures to November 2018, show that 89.3% of patients were seen within four hours at A&E departments. The data is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2018-19/ The NHS Long Term Plan published on 7 January 2019 ensures that work will continue to reduce pressure on emergency hospital services, by expanding and reforming urgent and emergency care with the goal of ensuring patients get the care they need quickly whilst relieving the pressure on A&E departments. The Government has provided £1.6 billion to further support the National Health Service this year, allowing it to treat even more patients in A&E. In addition, £420million to redevelop A&Es, improve emergency care and help get patients home quicker has been provided in advance of the winter period.

Health Services: Hearing Impairment

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS services are accessible for people with hearing loss.

Caroline Dinenage: It is the responsibility of local providers and commissioners of NHS services to make the reasonable adjustments required by the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that disabled people, including those with hearing impairments, are not placed at a disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. Additionally, under the NHS Constitution for England, National Health Service organisations are required to provide high quality comprehensive services, based on clinical need, which do not discriminate between patients on the basis of disability, including people with hearing impairments. In order to reduce the unacceptable variation in the provision of accessible information and communication support to disabled people, all organisations in England that provide NHS care or publicly-funded adult social care have been legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard since 1 August 2016. This ensures that people with a disability, impairment or sensory loss are provided with information they can easily read or understand, with support, so they can communicate effectively with services. This will help ensure that they receive an improved standard of care and be more involved in how that care is delivered.

Mental Health Services: Children

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase funding for children's mental health services in the next financial year.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, announced that mental health services will continue to receive a growing share of the National Health Service budget, with funding to grow by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. Under this Long Term Plan, funding for children and young people’s mental health services will grow faster than both overall NHS funding and total mental health spending.

Health Services: Greater London

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in reference to his Department’s announcement of September 2018 of £145 million to improve winter emergency care, how much of that funding has been allocated to each (a) NHS Trust and (b) NHS Foundation Trust in Greater London.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s announcement, Multi-million pound investment in new ambulances for the NHS, published in July 2018, how much of the £36.3 million of funding has been allocated to each (a) NHS Trust and (b) NHS Foundation Trust in England.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s announcement, £240 million social care investment to ease NHS winter pressures, published in October 2018, how much of that funding has been allocated to each local authority in London.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £420 million of additional winter funding for the NHS has been allocated to each (a) NHS trust, (b) NHS foundation trust and (c) local authority in Greater London.

Stephen Hammond: The £420 million winter funding to help support the National Health Service this winter includes:- £145 million for hospitals to make winter improvements;- £240 million for adult social care to help local authorities reduce pressures on the NHS; and- £36.3 million invested into ambulance services for new vehicles and ‘make-ready hubs’. The information requested on funding for individual organisations is provided in the following table. Winter capital funding for NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts in Greater LondonOrganisationFunding £(000s)North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust£3,000Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust£1,520Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust£400Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust£3,300Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust£2,350South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust£663The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust£1,000Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust£2,490Croydon Health Services NHS Trust£1,000Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust£1,200University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust£150London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust£998Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust£5,000Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust£500Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust£1,250South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust£150Barts Health NHS Trust£623London North West Healthcare NHS Trust£575South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust£360Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust£1,200 Allocation of the £36.3 million ambulance funding OrganisationFunding £London Ambulance Service NHS Trust£3,849,000East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust£6,500,000East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust£4,992,000North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust£6,621,000Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust£7,588,000South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust£6,722,000 Allocations from the £240 million adult social care fund were published for all local authorities in October 2018. This can be found online at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/748945/winter-funding-allocations-by-local-authority.pdf

Department of Health and Social Care: Brexit

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of his Department's public information campaign on the potential effect on the UK of leaving the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the European Union might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU exit. We have developed a cross-departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct United Kingdom citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit. Information on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal data transparency releases.

Cancer

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to meet the target for every person affected by cancer to have access to a recovery package by 2020.

Steve Brine: Cancer Alliances across England have been funded to introduce recovery package interventions starting in April 2017. Significant progress is being made and currently nearly every National Health Service trust has at least one cancer team providing the key components of the recovery package. As described in the new NHS Long Term Plan, by 2021, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access, where appropriate, to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. This will be delivered in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care. This will empower people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer, and maximise the potential of digital and community-based support. Over the next three years every patient with cancer will get a full assessment of their needs, an individual care plan and information and support for their wider health and wellbeing.

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of patients who have been (a) prescribed medicinal cannabis through the NHS and (b) denied a prescription for medicinal cannabis through the NHS since its use was legalised in November 2018.

Steve Brine: NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019. The Department does not hold information on the number of patients denied access to prescriptions for medicinal cannabis.

Social Services: Training

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the standards of training and (b) establish qualifications for social care workers.

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the level of turnover of social care staff.

Caroline Dinenage: The Department continues to work with its delivery partner, Skills for Care, to improve standards of training and qualifications of social care workers include increasing the uptake of the Care Certificate and qualifications in social care. In addition, the Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across social care and recognises the significant challenges in supporting and retaining our social care workforce. We are working with Skills for Care, to understand trends in retention and turnover rates of social care staff and will use this information to develop policies to address any workforce gaps. The Government has committed to publish an Adult Social Care Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out its proposals for reform in this sector. Recruiting more people to work in the sector is a priority for this Government and we are launching a national adult social care recruitment campaign in early February. This will raise the profile of the sector, build awareness of the rich variety of careers on offer, and attract the right people, with the right values, to deliver the very best care. The campaign will also support providers to improve their recruitment and retention practices.

Rare Diseases

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures he is taking to utilise UK genomic medical research to improve outcomes for patients living with rare diseases.

Caroline Dinenage: The Government’s 2013 UK Strategy for Rare Diseases aims to improve the lives all those with a rare disease and is currently being implemented across England. The Strategy covers five areas including the role of research, with significant support from the National Institute of Health Research. In October 2018, the Secretary of State announced his ambition to sequence 5 million genomes in the next five years including 1 million whole genome sequences. This builds on the success of the transformative 100,000 Genomes Project which recruited people with rare, undiagnosed genetic diseases, and with cancer, and which reached 100,000 sequences in December 2018. The NHS Long Term Plan published on 7 January sets out the National Health Service’s commitment to research and innovation to drive outcome improvement, including through targeted investment in genomics. It confirmed that the new NHS Genomic Medicine Service will sequence 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24 as part of the NHS’s contribution to the Government’s ambition for genomics. The NHS has become the first national health care system to offer whole genome sequencing as part of routine care. Another 500,000 whole genomes will be sequenced through UK Biobank as was announced in the 2017 Life Sciences Sector deal. Together, these activities will significantly increase the volume of high-quality genomic data for research to advance our knowledge to diagnose and treat rare diseases and other conditions to complement the research dataset already generated by the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Pharmacy

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to renegotiate the community pharmacy contractual framework; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: The Department will be seeking to renegotiate the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. Community pharmacies play a vital role within our health and care system and the Department remains committed to working closely with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee to better utilise the reach and skill set of pharmacy teams.

Pharmacy

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Cabinet Office on potential reforms to the community pharmacy sector.

Steve Brine: As is customary, the Department regularly engages the Cabinet Office across a wide range of policy issues. Ongoing discussions continue between the Department and the Cabinet Office on the role of community pharmacy and the important contribution of pharmacy teams as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Pharmacy: Finance

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2018 to Question 181567, what the average fee per prescription item is including the retained medicine margin for (a) a pharmacy which dispensed an average mean number of prescription items in 2017-18, (b) a pharmacy which dispensed the highest number of prescription items in 2017-18, (c) a pharmacy which dispensed the lowest number of prescription items in 2017-18 and (d) a pharmacy which is in the bottom quartile of all pharmacies for the number of prescription items it dispensed in 2017-18.

Steve Brine: The following table shows the average fee relating to essential services per prescription item for pharmacies with different levels of dispensing activity for the period 2017/18 and also includes medicine margin.  Average fee per prescription item including marginPharmacy with mean number of prescription items£2.37Pharmacy with highest number of prescription items£2.10Pharmacy with lowest number of prescription items£2.07Pharmacy with lowest quartile number of prescription items£2.57 We have calculated total fees as the sum of all essential service fees, including establishment payments and quality payments. It excludes any advanced service fees as these are payments for activity not related to dispensing. Any funding received via retained medicine margin, and any payments relating to the Pharmacy Access Scheme have similarly been excluded from this analysis and so would need to be separately considered. The medicine margin retained by individual pharmacy contractors is not known, therefore it can only be calculated by using the number of pharmacy contractors and the total medicine margin as per the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (which in 2017/18 was £800 million).

Pharmacy: Finance

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2018 to Question 181567, to list (a) the distance selling pharmacies used in the calculation provided in that Answer, (b) the average number of items dispensed each month for each in 2017/18 and (c) the average fee earned per prescription item for each in 2017-18.

Steve Brine: The list of distance selling pharmacies used in that calculation is in the attached table alongside their average number of prescription items in 2017/18. It would prejudice companies’ commercial interest to disclose the average fee per prescription item for each individual contractor and for this reason this information is provided as a range between £1.25 and £23.74.



PQ205890 attached table
(Word Document, 28.98 KB)

Pharmacy

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 82 of the NHS Long Term Plan, what specific reforms to reimbursement and supply arrangements for community pharmacy his Department is considering.

Steve Brine: As outlined in the published final package of, ‘Community Pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond’1, the Government is committed to pursuing a number of reimbursement reforms and taking steps to improve the prescription ordering journey to maximise patient choice and convenience. The reimbursement reforms include:- ‘non Part VIII’ products, i.e. products with no reimbursement price listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff;- changes to Category M for certain generic medicines to better reflect their market price;- changes to the margin survey to account for multiple suppliers for Non Part VIII products and Category C products;- ‘splitting the discount’- to reflect that in general generic medicines have increased margin over brands; and- changes to the way Category A prices are set.The Government has also recently committed to reforming reimbursement arrangements for specials. Note:1https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/561495/Community_pharmacy_package_A.pdf

Orkambi

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made in negotiations between NHS England and Vertex on the supply of Orkambi to treat people with cystic fibrosis.

Steve Brine: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England are leading the dialogue with Vertex Pharmaceuticals around access to their portfolio of cystic fibrosis medicines. It is critical that Vertex now re-engages fully with the NICE appraisal process and gives serious consideration to the portfolio deal offer that NHS England made at the end of July. This deal would provide immediate access for patients to all Vertex licensed medicines and future pipeline products once licensed and in advance of the individual NICE appraisals concluding. The Government fully supports the approach that NICE and NHS England are adopting. It is crucial that patients have access to the most effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the National Health Service. NHS England has proposed its best offer ever for a drug. This offer, in the region of £500 million over five years, is the largest ever commitment of its kind in the 70-year history of the NHS and would guarantee immediate and expanded access to both Orkambi and the drug Kalydeco for patients who need it. Whilst it is disappointing that Vertex has not taken up NHS England’s offer, we are encouraged that there is continued dialogue between all parties.

Breast Cancer: Screening

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the potential merits of the recommendations contained in the Independent Breast Screening Review will be included in the review of breast screening by the National Screening Committee.

Steve Brine: The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) welcomes the Independent Breast Screening Review report 2018 and will review the recommendations set out. In the meantime, the evidence to routinely screen women over 70 years of age is limited and we await the results of the Age Extension trial to help provide essential evidence needed to help better understand what the benefit and harms are when offering screening in women aged 71 to 73. The UK NSC is also looking at the age at which screening should no longer be routinely offered.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit: Disability

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many home visits officials her Department have made to assist disabled people in applying for universal credit in the last 12 months.

Alok Sharma: Holding answer received on 07 January 2019



The information requested is not centrally collated and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. Overall however, between April 2017 and March 2018, 290,000 cleared home visit referrals were made across all the Department’s service lines.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of earnings data provided to her Department from HMRC Real Time Information PAYE data and used in live claims to calculate Universal Credit awards contains a BACS hash.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2018 to Question 195460, what proportion of RTI earnings data her Department corrects each month using the RTI BACS hash validation value made available for that purpose by HMRC.

Alok Sharma: Holding answer received on 07 January 2019



The Department does not hold the information requested. The BACS hash is not passed to the Department from HMRC. The Department assist HMRC with Real Time Information disputes, and a manual intervention can be made to correct the Universal Credit award when validated against a claimant’s pay slips.

Department for Work and Pensions: Staff

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff were employed in her Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department collects and publishes its workforce management information each month. These details can be found at the following link. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-workforce-management-information The Department’s headcount is collected and reported as at the last day of each month. On 30 June 2016 the Department’s headcount was 84,226 and on 30 November 2018 it was 82,827.

Department for Work and Pensions: Defibrillators

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her policy is on having defibrillators available in all her Department's premises.

Justin Tomlinson: Following the Estates contract changes in April 2018, DWP reviewed its policy on defibrillators. As a result of that review, a Defibrillator will be installed in each DWP site. The rollout programme is planned to commence in February.

Personal Independence Payment: Visual Impairment

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people identifying as having a primary condition of (a) sight loss and (b) a visual impairment have been awarded personal independence payment (i) after mandatory reconsideration of their initial assessment and (ii) at a tribunal in Scotland in each year since 2013.

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) all new claimants of personal independence payment (PIP) and (b) new claimants of PIP identifying as having a primary condition of (i) sight loss and (ii) a visual impairment did not receive an award during their initial PIP assessment but received an award at (A) mandatory reconsideration and (B) tribunal in Scotland in each year since 2013.

Sarah Newton: The information requested is provided in the tables below. Table 1: PIP decisions, MRs and appeals – People with a primary disabling condition of visual diseases, Scotland, new claims and reassessments  Initial decisionsFailed initial assessmentFailed initial assessment - Changed at mandatory reconsiderationFailed initial assessment - Overturned at tribunal appeal2013-147010##2014-15420120#102015-1662015010302016-171,25022010402017-181,0002301050  Table 2: PIP decisions, MRs and appeals – Scotland, New claims  Initial decisionsFailed initial assessmentFailed initial assessment - Changed at MRFailed initial assessment - Overturned at appeal NumberNumber%Number%Number%2013-1410,4602,48024%1406%1606%2014-1555,46013,14024%3603%1,1909%2015-1648,74012,64026%3703%1,1809%2016-1752,56013,43026%5104%1,1709%2017-1857,29015,83028%5604%1,62010%  Table 3: PIP decisions, MRs and appeals – People with a primary disabling condition of visual diseases, Scotland, New claims  Initial decisionsFailed initial assessmentFailed initial assessment - Changed at MRFailed initial assessment - Overturned at appeal NumberNumber%Number%Number%2013-14701019%####2014-1535012033%##108%2015-1630012040%##2014%2016-1729011038%##1011%2017-1834014041%##2016%  Since PIP was introduced 3.7m decisions have been made in Great Britain for all health conditions up to September 2018, of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned. The data has been rounded to the nearest 10. # Fewer than 5 in this category. PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claimants, and covers new claims and DLA reassessment claims. In the application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. Therefore the figures in Table 2 will include claims where the disability has not been recorded due to the assessment not being completed, and are therefore not comparable to the figures in Table 3. Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. It is not possible to break down the condition of “visual disease” into sight loss or visual impairment from the data. The appeals may include decisions which are changed at mandatory reconsideration, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.

Universal Credit

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether (a) income-related and (b) contributory employment and support allowance will be phased out as part of managed migration to universal credit.

Sarah Newton: Income related Employment and Support Allowance will be replaced by Universal Credit. Existing Income related Employment and Support Allowance claimants will be transferred to Universal Credit as part of Managed Migration. Contributory Employment and Support Allowance is not being replaced by Universal Credit and will continue to be available.

Poverty

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to reduce in-work poverty.

Justin Tomlinson: I refer the Hon. Member to PQ 165151.

Home Office

Visas: Applications

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many service points for processing visa applications are currently operated by Sopra Steria; what the locations are of those service points; and which of those points are (a) free and (b) charge for that service.

Caroline Nokes: Sopra Steria have opened 56 fixed service points to date, a 57th location in Grays will open early 2019The locations of each service are listed below, 6 Core Service Points are free sites and any other sites are charged depending on the service pack-age a customer chooses Core Centres • Belfast• Birmingham• Cardiff• Croydon• Glasgow • ManchesterOther• Aberdeen• Barbican• Bedford• Bournemouth• Bradley Stoke• Brighton• Burnholme• Burnley• Cambridge• Canning Town• Canterbury• Coventry• Dorchester• East Ham• Eastbourne• Gloucester• Hammersmith (temporary)• Hemel Hempstead• Hull• Ipswich• Kensington• Lancaster• Liverpool• Llandudno• London • Newcastle• Newport• Norwich• Nottingham• Patchway• Peterborough• Preston• Reading• Salisbury• Shoe Lane• Southampton (temporary)• Stevenage• Stockport• Stratford• Swindon• Swinton• Taunton• Truro• Victoria (temporary)• Wakefield• Warrington• Warwick• Watford• Wimbledon• Wolverhampton

Undocumented Migrants: Boats

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of migrants that attempted to enter the UK using small boats were intercepted by the French Authorities in (a) the last three months of 2017 (b) 2017, (c) 2016 and (d) 2015.

Caroline Nokes: Border Force does not routinely publish this level of data however you will be aware the Home Secretary delivered a statement on the 7th January 2019 stating the below.Over 500 migrants - mostly Iranian - attempted to travel to the UK on small vessels in 2018. 80% of them attempted this in the last three months of the year. Around 40% of the attempts were either disrupted by French law enforcement or returned to France via French agencies.

Immigrants: Detainees

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Detention Services Order 01/2016 on The Protection, Use and Sharing of Medical Information Relating to People Detained Under Immigration Powers, whether his Department has shared medical files of detained persons with foreign Governments since 2016.

Caroline Nokes: Detention Services Order (DSO) 01/2016 sets out the Home Office’s policy on the protection, use and sharing of detainees’ medical information. As set out in this DSO the medical record is a confidential document and is the property of the detainee.In the case of an unescorted removal, the medical record is handed over to the detainee at the point of boarding the aircraft. During an escorted removal, the escort staff will hold the record until the end of the escort, when it is given over to the detainee before they are received by their own authorities. If the detainee does not want the record, the escort staff will return it to the UK where it will be securely stored.

National County Lines Coordination Centre: Staff

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 October 2018 to Question 173497, whether his Department is able to provide a breakdown between the number of full-time and part-time staff at the National County Lines Coordination Centre.

Victoria Atkins: The National County Lines Co-ordination Centre is a joint initiative between the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, supported by £3.6m of Home Office funding. It is one of our key commitments set out in the Serious Violence Strategy.The Centre is fully operational and has around 40 staff in post. The Home Office is not involved in the set up and running of the Centre as it is an operational matter for the NCA and police.

Undocumented Migrants: Shipping

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the total number of people using uncharted boats and ships to arrive in the UK in December 2018.

Caroline Nokes: Over 500 migrants - mostly Iranian - attempted to travel to the UK on small vessels in 2018. 80% of them attempted this in the last three months of the year.We are working across Government and with both domestic and international agencies to respond to this issue. A new UK-France Coordination and Information Centre has opened in Calais as part of the ongoing co-operation between the UK and France to tackle criminality at the border

Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Office: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many non-disclosure agreements her Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

John Penrose: I can confirm that the Northern Ireland Office has not signed any non-disclosure agreements with either companies or trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Treasury

Quintessential Brands

Neil Coyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department had with Quintessential Brands or their representatives in each of the last four years.

Robert Jenrick: Based on available records, there were no meetings held between Treasury Ministers and officials with Quintessential Brands during January 2015 to September 2018. Treasury Ministers’ meetings and hospitality are published quarterly and can be found at the following link.https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel Senior Treasury Officials’ meetings and hospitality are published quarterly and can be found at the following link.https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/senior-officials-expenses Details of meetings taking place between non-senior officials and the listed company are not readily available and would cost a disproportionate amount to identify and report.

Treasury: Staff

Chris Stephens: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff were employed in his Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.

Robert Jenrick: Please see below the paid full time equivalent staff, using ONS definitions for the end of June 2016 and the end November 2018. This is the latest data available for each month.  30th June 201630th November 2018Full-Time Equivalent1223.11446.8

Treasury: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many projects his Department has put on hold due to the requirements of planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Robert Jenrick: The Treasury’s priority is for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union with a negotiated deal. The department is, however, working with Cabinet Office to co-ordinate its contingency planning in the case of a ‘No Deal’, as well as running its own internal resourcing and workplan reviews in case of this outcome.

Treasury: Brexit

Tom Brake: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse was of his Department's public information campaign on the potential effect on the UK of leaving the EU without a deal.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU Exit. The Government has developed a cross-departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit. Information on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal transparency releases.

Customs

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of goods being imported into the UK from (a) other EU and (b) non-EU countries are physically checked when entering the UK.

Mel Stride: The EU is a Customs Union and the 28 member countries form a single territory for customs purposes. This means that no customs duties are paid on goods moving between EU Member States and goods that have been legally imported can circulate throughout the EU with no further customs checks. As a consequence Border Force do not routinely conduct customs compliance checks on EU goods. For imports from the rest of the world, HMRC reported to the European Commission that 1.3% of standard customs declarations were subject to physical examinations for customs compliance purposes in 2017.

Taxation: Electronic Government

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to support the implementation of Making Tax Digital; and whether Making Tax Digital will become operational in April 2019.

Mel Stride: HMRC have been engaging extensively with stakeholders on an ongoing basis, raising awareness and helping businesses to prepare for MTD. There is a collection of MTD support material available on GOV.UK and HMRC is writing to all mandated businesses to ensure they are aware of the changes. HMRC has also been working closely with the software industry to ensure there is a wide range of software products ready. The MTD VAT pilot began in April 2018, with a live testing phase where specific volunteer businesses and agents were invited to join to ensure everything was working. MTD for VAT will be mandated for all customers in April, except for the small minority for whom that has been deferred.

*No heading*

Julia Lopez: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of transferring the proceeds of vehicle excise duties raised in the Greater London Authority area to London local authorities.

Robert Jenrick: The government has committed to hypothecate Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) in England from 2020-21 into the National Roads Fund (NRF), providing long-term certainty for roads investment. This will be used to maintain the country’s main arterial routes and enhance national road connectivity. Devolving VED to London would undermine the purpose of the NRF to deliver nationally significant schemes across the strategic road network, including those in London such as the M25 and some recently announced Major Road Network candidates which will also be funded by the NRF.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Government Departments: Reorganisation

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with the Departments for Transport and for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on merging into one Department.

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made any plans to merge with another government department.

Jeremy Wright: The Prime Minister is responsible for Machinery of Government changes. No such discussions have taken place and there are no plans for DCMS to merge with any other department.

Digital Technology

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the UK’s digital sector of the UK leaving the EU without an adequacy agreement to ensure uninterrupted UK-EU data transfers.

Margot James: The impact of exiting the EU has been modelled for the UK economy as a whole. Several potential exit scenarios were explored in the government's EU Exit: Long-term Economic Analysis which was published in November 2018. No specific assessment has been made about the potential disruption to the UK’s digital sector. However, the Government has consistently made clear that many EU and UK businesses and public sector organisations rely on the free flow of personal data to fulfil their obligations and therefore maintaining the free flow of personal data is a priority for the Government.  The Data Protection Act 2018 updated the UK’s rules in accordance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and transposed the Law Enforcement Directive, ensuring our data protection laws will be aligned with those of the EU at our point of exit. We are confident that we will strike a positive relationship on data. The UK and the EU start from a position of trust in each other’s standards and regulatory alignment on data protection. As set out in the Political Declaration, the EU will begin its assessment of the UK as soon as possible after the United Kingdom's withdrawal, endeavouring to adopt decisions by the end of the implementation period. The UK is ready to begin those assessments. In addition to prioritising an early adequacy decision, it is the job of a responsible Government to prepare for the possibility that we leave the EU without an adequacy agreement in place. On 13 December the Government and the Information Commissioner's Office published detailed information and guidance on data protection in the event that this were to happen. DCMS is engaging with businesses across all sectors of the economy, including the digital sector, to mitigate risks to disruption of international data transfers. In recognition of the unprecedented degree of alignment between the UK and EU’s data protection regimes, the UK would at the point of exit continue to allow the free flow of personal data from the UK to the EU.

Facebook: Data Protection

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with Facebook about when that company became aware of misuse of personal data.

Margot James: Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with companies on a range of issues including on data protection. Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website. We take both the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. The Data Protection Act 2018 makes our data protection laws fit for the digital age in which an ever increasing amount of data is being processed and empowers people to take control of their data. As the independent regulator for data protection in the UK, the ICO were aware of the issue concerning Facebook and carried out inquiries as part of an in-depth investigation into data analytics for political purposes. Information about and the outcome of that investigation and all related actions taken, can be found on the ICO website here: https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/investigation-into-data-analytics-for-political-purposes/

Gambling: Internet

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the extent of problem online gambling in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Mims Davies: The report on gambling behaviour in Great Britain in 2016, based on the combined Health Surveys, found that the rate of problem gambling for those who participated in any online gambling or betting being 3.5%. The full report can be found here:https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Levels-of-participation-and-problem-gambling/Levels-of-problem-gambling-in-England.aspx The government published the Review of Gambling Machines and Social Responsibility Measures in May last year. This set out measures to increase player protections around online gambling. In line with this, the Gambling Commission has consulted on requiring operators to complete age and identity verification before consumers are able to deposit money and gamble and will publish a response early this year. We will continue to monitor this area and look closely at any evidence.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

UK Research and Innovation: Per Capita Costs

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the funding per head of population was by (a) UK Research and Innovation and (b) its predecessor bodies in (i) each region of England and (ii) the nations of the UK in each of the last five financial years.

Chris Skidmore: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 18 December 2018.The correct answer should have been:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was created on 1 April 2018 and so did not exist as a legal entity in previous financial years. Figures have been provided for its predecessor bodies for the most recent financial years available. The table shows expenditure by the nine councils that now make up UKRI, per head of population in each region and nation of the UK. The expenditure figures include research council and Innovate UK grants, and HEFCE/Research England’s Research Capital Investment Fund, Quality-related research (QR) funding and Higher Education Innovation Funding. £ per person2012/20132013/20142014/20152015/20162016/2017East of England108109110112112London127136144126116Midlands5964756768North East9880756462North West5358596055South East5754635351South West6365856868Yorkshire and the Humber6264677968England7981888177Northern Ireland1215171816Scotland6763746562Wales2127252522 £ per person2012/20132013/20142014/20152015/20162016/2017East of England108109110112112London156166174152140Midlands4853625656North East9880756462North West5358596055South East119118139127127South West6365856868Yorkshire and the Humber6264677968England89921009390Northern Ireland1215171816Scotland6763746562Wales2127252522

Chris Skidmore: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was created on 1 April 2018 and so did not exist as a legal entity in previous financial years. Figures have been provided for its predecessor bodies for the most recent financial years available. The table shows expenditure by the nine councils that now make up UKRI, per head of population in each region and nation of the UK. The expenditure figures include research council and Innovate UK grants, and HEFCE/Research England’s Research Capital Investment Fund, Quality-related research (QR) funding and Higher Education Innovation Funding. £ per person2012/20132013/20142014/20152015/20162016/2017East of England108109110112112London127136144126116Midlands5964756768North East9880756462North West5358596055South East5754635351South West6365856868Yorkshire and the Humber6264677968England7981888177Northern Ireland1215171816Scotland6763746562Wales2127252522 £ per person2012/20132013/20142014/20152015/20162016/2017East of England108109110112112London156166174152140Midlands4853625656North East9880756462North West5358596055South East119118139127127South West6365856868Yorkshire and the Humber6264677968England89921009390Northern Ireland1215171816Scotland6763746562Wales2127252522

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Overseas Aid

Mr Bob Seely: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding his Department has allocated to programmes overseas that is not part of Official Development Assistance in each of the last three years; and how much such funding his Department plans to allocate in each of the next two years.

Chris Skidmore: Holding answer received on 20 December 2018



The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s expenditure in the last three years on overseas programmes that are not part of Official Development Assistance is set out in the table below.  2016-17 Actual2017-18 Actual2018-19 Year-to-Date2018-19 Forecast£591m£575m£355m£515m  Funding for 2019/20 and periods covered by the Spending Review 19 have not yet been agreed.

Research: Per Capita Costs

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2018 to Question 202141 on UK Research and Innovation: Per Capita Costs, what assessment he has made of the disparities in per head funding for R&D throughout the (a) regions and (b) constituent parts of the UK.

Chris Skidmore: The Government wants to increase R&D investment across the country – from both the public and private sector. That is why, as part of the Industrial Strategy, we announced our commitment to increasing R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027 and, this year, launched UK Research & Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund which will fund Research and Innovation projects which support local growth and productivity. I refer the hon. Member to answers I gave her to Question 202141 on 18 December 2018 and Question 203451 on 28 December 2018, which include a table of expenditures per head of population in each region and nation of the UK.

Property: Ownership

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2018 to Question 175844 on Property: Ownership, for what reason the Government did not follow the May 2016-April 2018 timeline referred to in the Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 for bringing forward legislative proposals on the property ownership register.

Kelly Tolhurst: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 16 October 2018 to Question 175844.The register of overseas entities will be the first of its kind in the world and we must ensure that we get our legislative proposals right in order to deliver the policy in a full and effective way. The timetable set out in the Written Ministerial Statement [HCWS425] referred to in my previous response enables this.

Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the paragraph 16 of the draft Employment Tribunals Terms and Conditions of Employment The Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments ) Regulations 2019, what estimate his Department has made of the number of additional employers that will become within the scope of the Information and Consultation Employees Regulations 2004.

Kelly Tolhurst: On 17 December 2018 the Government published the Good Work Plan, the most substantial reform of employment rules in over twenty years. Alongside the Plan, we laid draft Regulations that lower the threshold required for a valid employee request under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004. Lowering the threshold from 10% to 2% of employees will ensure employees have a voice in the workplace. The draft Regulations do not change the number of employers in scope of the Information and Consultation Regulations.

Electricity: Iron and Steel

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the disparity in industrial electricity prices for steel producers in the UK and those in France and Germany.

Claire Perry: A 2017 report prepared for the Committee on Climate Change on the competitiveness of UK energy intensive industries (EIIs) estimated that average industrial electricity prices faced by steel producers in the UK were around double those in France and Germany in 2016[1]. Since 2016 the UK has introduced an exemption for eligible EIIs from the costs of the Contracts for Difference scheme, helping to reduce the differential.The Government recognises that industrial electricity prices are currently higher than those in some competitor economies and is committed to minimising energy costs for businesses to ensure our economy remains strong and competitive. The ability of our industries to be able to compete across Europe and globally is a priority for this Government.The Budget on 29 October 2018 announced that £315 million is being provided for an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support industrial energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects to bring energy costs down for vital industries, including the steel sector.We also continue to reduce the cumulative impact of energy and climate change policies on industrial electricity prices for key energy intensive industries. This includes a package of relief for these industries worth over £850 million since 2013, of which more than £270 million has been provided to the steel sector.[1]Figure 2.8, Competitiveness impacts on energy-intensive industries Cambridge Econometrics March 2017: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Competitiveness-impacts-on-energy-intensive-industries-Cambridge-Econometrics-March-2017.pdf

Energy: Industry

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department monitors the (a) difference in and (b) reasons for the difference in industrial energy prices between the UK and its competitors to enable informed policy making.

Claire Perry: BEIS publishes statistics on international energy price comparisons[1]. These show that for the UK, industrial gas prices are among the lowest in the EU-15 but industrial electricity prices have risen to be the most expensive for large and extra-large users of electricity.The Government is committed to minimising energy costs for businesses to ensure our economy remains strong and competitive. Higher industrial electricity prices in the UK partly reflect how the costs of the electricity system are distributed across household and industrial customers. For example, while very large German industrial users pay electricity prices that are lower than those in the UK, German households faced electricity prices that were 68 per cent higher than UK households in 2017.In his recent energy speech, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out the importance of a fair distribution of costs and the principles that are intended to deliver policies that will lower the costs of the electricity system permanently. Further details will be set out in a White Paper this year.The Budget on 29 October 2018 announced that £315 million is being provided for an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support industrial energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects to bring energy costs down for vital industries, including the steel sector.The Government also continues to reduce the cumulative impact of energy and climate change policies on industrial electricity prices for key energy intensive industries. This includes a package of relief for these industries worth over £850 million since 2013, reducing the indirect cost of energy and climate change policies on their energy bills by up to 80 per cent. [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/international-industrial-energy-prices

Electricity: Iron and Steel

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of new Ofgem network charging rules on costs for steel producers; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the new charging rules will not increase costs for steel companies.

Claire Perry: Network charging is a matter for Ofgem as the independent regulator, and decisions on its review of charging rules (known as the Targeted Charging Review) are for it to make. However, Government is working to understand the policy implications of Ofgem’s review proposals across a broad range of interests, including steel companies.Ofgem has not yet concluded its review, and is currently consulting on lead options for reform. Steel companies are currently analysing to what extent these options might impact on them. Ofgem’s consultation closes on 4th February 2019. We are encouraging steel companies and all other interested parties to engage with Ofgem to ensure their perspectives and evidence can be taken into account.

Equal Pay: Ethnic Groups

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the ethnicity pay gap.

Kelly Tolhurst: In October 2018 my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a package of measures to make the workplace fairer for people from ethnic minorities, including a consultation on mandatory ethnicity pay reporting by employers with 250 or more employees. The consultation closed on 11th January and we will set out next steps in due course.

Living Wage: Age

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons the minimum age to receive the national living wage was set at 25.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government has committed to increase the National Living Wage to reach 60 per cent of median earnings by 2020. Limiting the National Living Wage to workers aged 25 and over helps boost the employment prospects of younger people. For younger workers, the priority in those first years is to secure work and gain experience. Improvements in the youth labour market have enabled the Low Pay Commission to be more ambitious when setting the youth rates. In April 2018, those entitled to the 21-24 age rate saw the fastest percentage increase since 2006 and those entitled to the 18-20 age rate saw the fastest increase since 2004. The Government is setting minimum thresholds only and we encourage employers to pay more when possible.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Housing Estates: Regeneration

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent on loan funding for estate regeneration since 2010.

James Brokenshire: Since 2010, the Government has spent £19 million on loan funding for estate regeneration. This has been paid to Notting Hill Genesis to support the regeneration of Grahame Park in Barnet. The total commitment to Notting Hill Genesis is £56 million.A further three schemes have applied for a total of £47 million loan finance and are undergoing due diligence before final approval. We are also continuing to work with partners across the country to develop a pipeline of viable schemes for future funding.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

Jake Berry: HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for Brexit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on 13 March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/).MHCLG did not receive Brexit preparations allocation for the financial year 2018/19.

Housing: Construction

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, at what rate he estimates the UK needs to build houses in order to cope with the additional demand created by current levels of immigration.

Kit Malthouse: The Government is committed to delivering the right homes in the right places. We are making progress, and latest figures show over 222,000 new homes were delivered in 2017/18 in England - the highest level of new homes delivered in all but one of the last 31 years. But we are determined to do more in order to deliver the homes communities need. That is why we have set out an ambitious package of measures to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. These measures include over £44 billion of financial support, planning reforms and scrapping housing revenue account borrowing caps so councils can deliver a new generation of council housing.Household growth projections are used in Government’s standard method for assessing local housing need—the starting point for establishing local housing requirements. These projections are derived from the population projections which in turn take into account immigration, projecting these trends forward. It is for local authorities to decide how many homes their communities need through their plan-making process.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what material changes have been made to the 2015 National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre planning brief since its publication.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The objective remains to build a striking new national memorial co-located with a world class learning centre.

Planning Permission

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which criteria (a) local authorities, (b) the Royal Parks and (c) his Department uses to assess applications to construct substantial buildings in (i) Royal Parks and (ii) world heritage sites.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Applications for development in Royal Parks and World Heritage Sites must be decided on the basis of relevant development plan policies and take into account any other material considerations, including national planning policy. The latter identifies World Heritage Sites as heritage assets of the highest significance and sets out general considerations relating to open space. More specific policies are contained in the local development plan.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the business case for the (a) construction and (b) continuing costs of the National Holocaust Memorial and Leaning Centre.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The business case contains information which is commercially sensitive and not currently suitable for publication.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether entry to the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is planned to be free of charge.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: While the entrance to the learning centre will be controlled by a ticketed system to avoid queues, no decision has yet been taken on charging policy.

Victoria Tower Gardens

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will meet Lords and Commons Members to discuss their concerns about building in Victoria Tower Gardens.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Many discussions with Members of the Lords and Commons have taken place since January 2016 when the Government announced its intention to site the Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. Minsters will meet with the APPG on the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in the coming months. Planning concerns should at this stage be directed to Westminster City Council who will be considering the planning application.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which Government Departments officials in his Department have had meetings with to discuss the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre; and the dates on which those meetings took place.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have held numerous meetings over several years to discuss the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if the Minister will make representations to the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation on the potential merits of the Foundation engaging with (a) a variety of members of the Jewish community and (b) representatives of the Buxton memorial against slavery to increase support for that Memorial.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation has engaged extensively with all interested parties, including through two public exhibitions of the proposed designs. The Foundation’s plan is to enhance the setting of the Buxton Memorial.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the decision was taken to submit a planning application for the proposed National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre to Westminster City Council a day before the parliamentary recess.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The planning application was submitted at the earliest practical opportunity following the second public exhibition. The full statutory consultation period will commence following Westminster City Council’s validation of the application, which we expect in January.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will instruct the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Foundation together to (a) engage with people that wish to have detailed discussions on the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre and (b) require the Foundation to provide requested information that should be in the public domain.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation has engaged extensively with all interested parties and I am confident that it will continue to do so.

Leasehold: Reform

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to publish the results of the consultation into Implementing reforms to the leasehold system.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Department’s consultation, “Implementing reforms to the leasehold system”, set out how the Government intends to tackle excessive and unjustifiable practices in the leasehold system. We are currently analysing responses and plan to publish the Government’s response in due course.

Homelessness

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of people who are roofless have no recourse to public funds.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Department does not collect information on the proportion of rough sleepers who have no recourse to public funds. Information on rough sleepers’ self-reported immigration status can be accessed through CHAIN’s annual reports, found here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports.This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy, which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.The Rough Sleeping Strategy funding includes £5 million for a new fund to help local areas take action to help non-UK nationals who sleep rough get off the streets.This funding will complement the projects which we have already funded through the £100 million Controlling Migration Fund (CMF) for local authorities to work with non-UK nationals who sleep rough.

Homelessness

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people who are homeless have no recourse to public funds.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: This Department does not collect information on the proportion of homeless people who have no recourse to public funds. The Government collects statistics on wider homelessness issues, such as acceptances and numbers in temporary accommodation. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy, which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period

Building Regulations and Fire Safety Independent Review

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the report entitled Building a Safer Future, Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, published in May 2018, whether the Government plans to bring forward legislation to implement recommendations in that report before the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Kit Malthouse: The Government set out how it intends to take forward the recommendations of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety as well as other steps we are taking to improve building safety in its report titled ‘Building a Safer Future – An Implementation Plan’ published on 18 December 2018.We will consult in spring 2019 to develop government policy in more detail and to prepare the way for future legislative change.

Housing: Standards

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the requirements of the nationally described space standards for housing.

James Brokenshire: The revised National Planning Policy Framework, published in July 2018, set out the Government’s policy on the nationally described space standard which is that local planning authorities may make use of the standard, where the need for an internal space standard can be justified.

Housing: Standards

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the number of new dwellings which (a) do and (b) do not meet the nationally described space standards for housing.

James Brokenshire: The Department does not hold this information. It is for local planning authorities to determine whether to apply the nationally described space standard for new development in their area, where the need for an internal space standard can be justified.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much his Department is spending on a public information campaign to prepare people for the potential effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Jake Berry: The Government has a duty to inform people and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for Brexit.   Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit.   Information on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal data transparency releases.

Housing: Noise

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what measures are available to (a) property owners and (b) local authorities to enforce minimum building noise insulation standards in (i) new build properties and (ii) conversions; and whether those measures apply to offices converted to residential properties under permitted development rules.

Kit Malthouse: Part E of Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 2010 sets requirements for protection against sound from other parts of the building and adjoining premises. Building Regulations apply that when building work which can involve the construction of a new dwellings and when there is a change of use to a residential purpose. They apply irrespective of whether there is a permitted development right in place under planning legislation.Building control bodies, which can be either a local authority or a private sector Approved Inspector, are responsible for checking compliance with Building Regulations’ requirements. If householders think that requirements have not been met, they should raise this with the building control body.

Sleeping Rough

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of homeless people sleeping in (a) tents and (b) cars.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: National street counts and intelligence driven estimates of people sleeping rough are conducted every year in autumn. The most recent data from the autumn 2017 annual street count and estimate returned a total figure of 4,751 rough sleepers in England.Rough sleepers are defined as people sleeping, about to bed down, or actually bedded down in the open air (such as on the streets, in tents or in bus shelters) - as well as people in buildings or other places not designed for habitation. As such, homeless people sleeping in tents or cars are captured in the total. However, whilst they are incorporated in our data, there is not a separate breakdown for these demographics.The official street count and estimate of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in England, between 1 October 2018 and 31 November 2018, will be published on Thursday 31 January 2019.This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.

New Monks Farm: Construction

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to announce a decision on calling in the planning application for the New Monks Farm development in Lancing, West Sussex.

Kit Malthouse: The Secretary of State is currently considering planning application AWDM/0961/17 regarding land west of New Monks Farm, Marsh Barn Lane, Lancing, and is currently considering all relevant documentation and representations. A decision will be announced as soon as possible.

New Monks Farm: Construction

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many representations he has received to (a) call in and (b) not to call in the New Monks Farm development in Lancing, West Sussex.

Kit Malthouse: To date, the Secretary of State has received a total of 225 representations objecting to the application for land west of new Monks Farm, Marsh Barn Lane, Lancing, and to the related application at Shoreham Airport, Lancing and 14 representations in support.

Ministry of Defence

Children: Maintenance

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department provides assistance to (a) serving and (b) retired personnel when they are in dispute with the Child Maintenance Service.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes its duties in facilitating the recovery of child support maintenance very seriously. The MOD has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to facilitate the direct deduction of child maintenance payments from the pay of non-resident parents who are Service personnel, where it is appropriate to do so.Where a parent asks the CMS to help obtain appropriate child support from a Service person, the MOD will assist the CMS in engaging with the Service person and will implement a Deduction from Earnings Request submitted by the CMS, where it is appropriate to do so. This mechanism can also be applied to applicable Service pensions and civilian pay.It would not be appropriate for the Ministry of Defence to intervene in disputes between Service personnel or veterans and the CMS. Detailed guidance on the CMS complaints process, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals is published at:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/646116/if-you-are-unhappy-cms.pdf

Russia: Air Force

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions Russian aircraft not using an on-board transponder have been detected in (a) approaches to and (b) inside UK airspace in each of the last five years; and if he will make statement.

Mark Lancaster: I am withholding details of the number of occasions Russian military aircraft were detected approaching UK airspace. The disclosure of this information would reveal details of the air defence of the UK which would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces. There have been no unauthorised incursions by Russian military aircraft into UK sovereign airspace.

Ministry of Defence: Disclosure of Information

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has entered into in each year since 2005.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Ministry of Defence: Staff

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff were employed in his Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The number of staff employed in the Department on the dates requested are shown below. 20 December 2018 Military Strength196,120Civilian Employees47,940Total244,060  23 June 2016 Military Strength201,350Civilian46,410Total247,760 The military figures include both trained and untrained Service personnel, Ghurkhasand the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid systematic bias.Totals have been rounded separately and therefore may not equal the sum of their rounded parts.- zero or rounded to zeroThe civilian figures are MOD Main personnel, including DE&S. Personnel from DSTL, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, other agencies and arm’s length bodies are not included.

Ministry of Defence: Infrastructure

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many infrastructure contracts overseen by his Department have been let with the stipulation that a Project Bank Account must be applied in the last year.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, has let one infrastructure contract in the last year with the stipulation that a Project Bank Account (PBA) must be used. For all future procurements, DIO are reviewing the way in which PBAs can be embedded into contracts.

Ministry of Defence: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil servants in his Department are currently working on planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how many have been moved from other projects to work on those plans.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) currently has a central team of ten civil servants who deal exclusively with Defence issues relating to the UK's decision to leave the EU. Four of these have recently joined the team, having moved from elsewhere within the Department to support planning for the possibility of the UK leaving the EU without a deal. The central team draws on a wide network of subject matter experts across all relevant business areas within MOD; they provide support and input as required, in addition to their normal duties. The MOD continually reviews workforce plans and reprioritises as necessary.

Ministry of Defence: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many projects his Department has put on hold due to the requirements of planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence has not put any projects on hold to date. The Department continually reviews its plans against emerging priorities, taking into account any developments in the Government's approach to the UK leaving the EU.

RAF Benson: Noise

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the effect of noise from military aircraft operations from RAF Benson on Abingdon residents; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises that while aircraft bases bring significant benefits to their local area, the noise produced by aircraft can have an impact on local communities. There are no uninhabited areas of the UK large enough to accommodate military aviation needs, which makes some disruption unavoidable.As with all MOD bases, RAF Benson takes its responsibilities to the public very seriously and seeks to mitigate and minimise the impact of noise on local residents as far as possible. Measures include that aircrew must assess the noise they are causing and reduce it so far as safe operation will allow; training is planned to be spread geographically as widely as possible to reduce recurrent disturbance to specific communities; and the MOD seeks to conduct training over less densely-populated areas, balancing the requirement to minimise noise with safe aircraft operation and training requirements.

Military Aircraft: Procurement

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on the future fighter programme.

Stuart Andrew: Since the announcement of the Combat Air Strategy at the Farnborough Airshow in July, the Ministry of Defence has established a team, based in Head Office to lead the acquisition of next generation Combat Air capability. This team has achieved the first major milestone laid out in Strategy - delivery of the Strategic Outline (Business) Case by the end of 2018. In parallel, the team has established new fora to explore and understand opportunities for collaboration on next generation Combat Air capability with international partners.

Aerospace Industry: Exports

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support exports in the aerospace industry.

Stuart Andrew: The Ministry of Defence and other Government Departments continue to work closely with the UK aerospace industry to champion our world leading industrial base overseas and to identify new opportunities for export and long-term capability collaboration.

Veterans: Employment

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support ex-services personnel to find employment.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 16 October 2018 to Question 176179 to the hon. Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson).



Veterans
(Word Document, 28.86 KB)

Ministry of Defence: Brexit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence currently has a central team who deal exclusively with Defence issues relating to the UK's decision to leave the EU. The central team draws on a wide network of subject matter experts across all relevant business areas within Ministry of Defence. The Ministry of Defence currently estimates that it does not need to recruit any additional staff if the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal, and will continually review workforce plans and reprioritise as necessary.

Armed Forces: Housing

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the written statement of 10 October 2018 on Future Accommodation Model, HCWS982, what progress he has made on implementing the Future Accommodation Model pilot scheme.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: As set out in the written statement of 10 October 2018 on the pilot for the Future Accommodation Model, it is anticipated that the pilot will commence at a small number of bases later this year.

HMS Mersey: English Channel

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what cost has been incurred to the public purse by the deployment of HMS Mersey to assist UK Border Force in the English channel.

Mark Lancaster: The Secretary of State for Defence deployed HMS Mersey to the English Channel in response to a formal Military Aid to the Civil Authority (MACA) request from the Home Secretary. The deployment of HMS Mersey was requested to fill a gap in Border Force capability whilst one of their vessels is returned from the Aegean. The per day cost is in the region of £20,000 which includes the full crew and items such as maintenance, fuel and other costs incurred as a result of conducting this activity. As is usual with MACA requests, these costs will be reclaimed from the Home Office in accordance with Her Majesty's Treasury Rules as stated in 'Managing Public Money'. This directs that Government Departments must charge for services that do not form part of their funded tasks.

Empire Test Pilots' School: Costs

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to his Department is per flight hour for the use of the Empire Test School Gripen aircraft.

Stuart Andrew: The Empire Test Pilots School is operated by QinetiQ under the Long Term Partnering Agreement and the Gripen training aircraft is provided by a sub-contractor as part of a fixed price contract amendment. I am withholding details of flight costs as their disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.

Scotland Office

Scotland Office: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

David Mundell: HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540:https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/.This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year. The Office holds no estimate of what it has spent on no deal preparations which can readily be separated from other EU exit and devolution work in general.

Scotland Office: Staff

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many staff were employed in his Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.

David Mundell: The Office of the Secretary of Scotland does not hold staffing information at mid-point monthly dates; information is recorded at month end only.On 30 June 2016, there were 67.0 FTE staff in post, and on 31 December 2018 there were 74.4 FTE staff in post.

Scotland Office: Brexit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

David Mundell: Work to prepare for a successful EU exit is a key priority for the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Office was allocated additional EU exit funding to create three new posts for this financial year.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Brexit

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what cost his Department has incurred to the public purse by providing public information on the potential effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

George Hollingbery: The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU Exit.We have developed a cross-departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexitInformation on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal data transparency releases.

Women and Equalities

Females: Politics and Government

Jess Phillips: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the recommendations in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s strategic plan 2016-19 on tackling the barriers facing women in politics and public life.

Jess Phillips: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of whether the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s strategic plan 2016-19 support key parts of the Equalities Act 2010 such as the implementation of section 106 on the Information about diversity in range of candidates.

Victoria Atkins: In common with other such Plans which it has published, the EHRC’s Strategic Plan 2016-19 sets priority areas and intended actions for the Commission’s own work over the three years in question, but does not make recommendations either for Government or for other EHRC stakeholders. The relevant Priority Area (“Citizenship and Democracy”) of the EHRC’s Strategic Plan 2016-19 accordingly commits it to “focus on delivering improvements in relation to political representation and civic participation; anti-extremism and anti-terrorism legislation and surveillance powers; and freedom of expression and freedom to associate in a trade union.”The Government notes these commitments, but has not made an assessment of their merits in tackling the barriers facing women in politics and public life, or of whether they support aspects of the Equality Act 2010 such as Section 106. It is for the EHRC, as an independent public authority, to progress the commitments as it sees fit.

Government Equalities Office: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to her Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

Victoria Atkins: HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.

Females: Candidates

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what plans she has to encourage more women to stand for elected office.

Victoria Atkins: One of our aims for the Women’s Suffrage Centenary was to ensure more women participate in politics and decision-making. Whether that is to vote, to campaign or to stand for election, women must be there making the decisions.Over the course of 2018, the Centenary Fund supported nearly 320 small and large projects. Many of them are ongoing and designed to encourage participation by offering women across the country information and training to take part in civic society at all levels. For example, on 21 November 2018, the Campaign group 50:50 Parliament’s #AskHerToStand event asked MPs to mentor women from their constituency for the day.

Department for Transport

Manchester-Sheffield Railway Line

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to allocate funding for improvements to the Hope Valley line.

Andrew Jones: The Department is updating the business case for the Hope Valley Capacity scheme to secure a ‘Decision to Deliver’. When we are in a position to announce a delivery date, it will be with the assurance that it is value for money and deliverable by that date. We anticipate being in that position later this year. Network Rail are undertaking pre-construction planning to enable the scheme to be delivered as quickly as possible. They will be working with the train operators to assess the best way to deliver the scheme with the least disruption to passengers and freight.

Road Traffic: Dover Port

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what cost was incurred to the public purse by congestion testing between Manston airport and the Port of Dover on 7 January 2019.

Jesse Norman: The cost to reimburse hauliers for operational costs, and reimbursement for site management costs incurred by the owners of Manston airfield, was £60,000-65,000. There will also have been some small costs to Kent Police and Kent County Council to enable their staff to attend the trial.

Walking

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the proportion of journeys made by walking.

Jesse Norman: The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy of March 2017 sets out a range of aims and targets, including to increase walking activity and increase the percentage of 5-10 year olds walking to school. Almost £2 billion is projected to be invested over this parliament to 2021 to deliver increased levels of active travel, including through the Transforming Cities Fund and Local Growth Fund.

Trains: Hydrogen

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the deployment of hydrogen-powered trains in the UK.

Andrew Jones: The Department sets carbon trajectory targets in franchise agreements to encourage industry to deliver greener trains which could include hydrogen. The Department has also challenged the Industry to report on the options for having no more diesel only trains on the rail network by 2040. The report is due to be published shortly and is likely to set out a number of alternatives including hydrogen. With hydrogen being just one of a number of exciting technological opportunities for the future of the rail network, I welcome the work of Alstom and Eversholt Rail who have recently unveiled the design of a new hydrogen train for the UK market.

Railways

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress his Department has made on implementation of the recommendations in the Strategic Vision for Rail.

Andrew Jones: Since the publication of the Strategic Vision for Rail in November 2017 we have made significant progress on delivering our near term commitments. We are introducing alliancing through three current competitions on South Eastern, East Midlands and the West Coast Partnership. We are spending £47.9bn from 2019 to 2024 on our network.. We are working closely with Network Rail on its plans to devolve more authority to its routes to meet local customers’ needs. And we have delivered on our commitments to ensure that the railway provides modern customer services that passengers expect, such as the introduction of smart ticketing and the rail ombudsman. However, whilst we continue to work with industry to make sure that rail delivers day-to-day, and given the disruption caused to passengers by the introduction of the May 2018 timetable, it is clear we need transformational changes to meet future demands. That is why we have launched the Rail Review which will build on the work of the Strategic Vision and consider ambitious recommendations for reform, to ensure our vital rail system benefits passengers and freight and supports a stronger and fairer economy.

Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern Rail Franchise

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress his Department has made on implementation of the recommendations in Chris Gibb's independent report on the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise.

Andrew Jones: Chris Gibb’s report made a number of recommendations for the network that we are continuing to work with the industry to deliver. In particular, the Department is working with Network Rail to deliver the remainder of the £300m programme to improve rail infrastructure and resilience along the Southern and Thameslink rail networks announced in January 2017. This will underpin the delivery of the Thameslink Programme and improve reliability across those networks. Those works include the successful delivery of an ongoing programme of track renewals, a number of signaling enhancements, drainage works and the clearance of vegetation. A number of maintenance pods have been delivered at strategic points on the network to help improve service recovery times. There is also a major overhaul of the Balcombe Tunnel infrastructure that will make a real difference to performance on the Brighton Main Line and is being done in a way that minimises passenger impacts. In addition, the Thameslink Industry Readiness Board chaired by Chris Gibb is now in the process of independently reviewing and challenging the industry programme to deliver the remaining Thameslink Programme timetable changes.

Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern Rail Franchise

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will direct Govia Thameslink to share the data required by Transport for London to be able to compile a business case for becoming the franchising authority for Great Northern services operating in and out of Moorgate station.

Andrew Jones: The Department remains committed to working with Transport for London (TfL) to consider options for the devolution of the Moorgate line. We will always seek to devolve the responsibility for decisions where there is a case for doing so that will benefit all passengers.I understand the need for GTR to share data with TfL so that they can prepare for the possible devolution of the Moorgate line in good time. However, GTR are focusing on delivering the complete benefits of the Thameslink Programme and this still has a way to go. This means that there is not yet a steady state operational model, and major change continues. As a result, much of the information that TfL will need access to cannot be shared yet as it is still subject to significant change.

Seaborne Freight

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library a copy of all documents and emails held by his Department on the due diligence undertaken on Seaborne Freight Ltd. before the awarding of a freight moving contract to them as part of the preparation for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The contractual process was set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State on 7 January. The due diligence was carried out on a commercially confidential basis and therefore we have no plans to publish any further detail.

Railways: Overcrowding

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the number and proportion of trains running over capacity in the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones: Capacity provided by franchised rail operators is monitored by the DfT through a regular series of passenger counts at a number of major city centre stations. The results enable the DfT to liaise with operators where capacity problems are identified, and to ensure that potential solutions are investigated. It is for the rail industry to plan to fully deploy available rolling stock to best meet passenger demand, and take all reasonable steps to minimise any crowding.  Rail crowding statistics published by the Department for Transport provides information on passenger crowding into major city centres, based on a typical autumn weekday. The table below presents the percentage of standard class passengers in excess of the capacity (PiXC) on their train service across the morning peak (07:00 to 09:59) and evening peak (16:00 to 18:59) into major city centres. Passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) on a typical autumn weekday across fourteen major cities in England and Wales 20172016201520142013Total for all major cities3.5%3.8%3.8%3.5%2.6% Further information is provided in the following online table:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/728189/rai0209.ods This table is part of an annual statistics publication on passenger numbers and crowding in major city centres in England and Wales, which can be found here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/728526/rail-passengers-crowding-2017.pdf

Members: Correspondence

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Reigate of 18 December 2018 on 2019 fare changes in the Redhill area.

Andrew Jones: The Honourable Gentleman’s letter was received by the department on 24 December, and we aim to respond to all correspondence within 20 working days. However, I am pleased to confirm that I have already responded.

Seaborne Freight

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many meetings his Department held with Seaborne Freight in 2018.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Officials were engaged in a series of meetings with Seaborne Freight during discussions over the proposed contract.

Department for Transport: Brexit

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has issued any Ministerial directions in relation to spending for preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chris Grayling: Bernadette Kelly, the Accounting Officer for DfT, sought a written ministerial direction on 7 February 2018 in relation to the department’s work on haulage permits and the trailer registration scheme. The details can be found herehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-exit-preparations-dft-ministerial-direction. No other ministerial directions have been sought.

Airports: Unmanned Air Vehicles

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which parties were consulted on the adequacy of the 400 ft height and 1 km radius exclusion zone on the use of drones adjacent to airports.

Jesse Norman: On 7th January 2019, the Government published its response to the recent consultation on the safe use and effective regulation of drones; “Taking Flight: The Future of Drones in the UK”. There was significant interest in the consultation, which closed on 17 September and received around 5,000 responses. One of the key topics covered in the consultation was whether the current airport restriction was sufficient, and if not, what kind of further extension should be considered. As a result, the exclusion zone around airports will be extended to approximately a 5km-radius (3.1 miles), with additional extensions at the end of each runway. The consultation response document can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-future-of-drones-in-the-uk-consultation . Chapter 5 includes a summary of responses to the questions on the airport restriction zone, and summarises the views received from aerodromes and airlines, model aircraft fliers and leisure users of drones, amongst others. As explained in the consultation response, The Department for Transport will still be instructing the CAA to review the effectiveness of aerodrome restriction measures during the next year.

Motor Vehicles: Registration

Andrew Selous: What steps he is taking to ensure the compliance of foreign-registered vehicles with UK laws and regulations.

Jesse Norman: UK road traffic legislation applies to everyone who use our roads irrespective of where the vehicle is registered. It is for the Police to decide what action to take against foreign drivers detected committing criminal traffic offences. This may include impounding. For traffic offences subject to civil enforcement, persistent evaders found in contravention may have their vehicles immobilised or removed. Some local authorities use international debt recovery agents to recover payment.

Underground Railways: Disability

Emma Dent Coad: If he will support Transport for London to increase the number of step-free access underground stations in London.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor and delivered by Transport for London. It is a matter for the Mayor to determine how to increase step free access at Underground stations.

Brexit

Kirsty Blackman: What steps he is taking to ensure the preparedness of his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Chris Grayling: My Department has undertaken a programme of work to ensure preparedness in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal. The overall programme of work is comprehensive, thorough and is continuously updated to reflect priorities. Industry stakeholders have also been involved where appropriate in our preparations.

Seaborne Freight

Meg Hillier: What due diligence was undertaken by his Department in advance of its award of a contract to Seaborne Freight.

Chris Grayling: Thorough checks were undertaken by my Department in December. This had the support of professional advisers, including Slaughter and May, Deloitte and Mott Macdonald.

Bus Services

Karen Lee: What recent assessment he has made of trends in the number of bus journeys in England.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Local bus journeys remain central to transport choices, accounting for around 59% of all public transport journeys. The number of local bus passenger journeys in England fell by 1.5% to 4.44 billion in the year ending March 2017.

British Transport Police: Police Scotland

Hugh Gaffney: What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the proposal to merge British Transport Police in Scotland with Police Scotland.

Jesse Norman: The Scotland Act 2016, following the Smith Agreement, devolves responsibility for railway policing in Scotland. The Scottish Government have announced that, although full integration of the British Transport Police into Police Scotland remains the long-term ambition, other options are now being explored. The Government continues to work with the Scottish Government as they develop their plans and we remain committed to ensuring the continuing effectiveness of railway policing across the network.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Democratic Republic of Congo: Politics and Government

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on (a) current levels of political stability and (b) the handling of the recent presidential election.

Harriett Baldwin: The Foreign Secretary and I met with the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference in London last October. He encouraged the Congolese government to engage constructively with the then upcoming elections. Last month I underlined with the three main presidential candidates the need to engage fully with the electoral process and to condemn any electoral violence or incitement of it. We continue to press for adherence to these principles locally and through multilateral fora such as the UN and EU.The UK congratulates the Congolese people for exercising their democratic rights by going to the polls on 30 December 2018. Thankfully, the polling period was more stable than many had feared it might be and instances of electoral violence were minimal. Despite the electoral commission (CENI) delaying the announcement of the election results, much of the country remains calm, including the capital, Kinshasa. Alongside our international partners, the UK has lobbied the government of the DRC to respect the election results and for CENI to compile and announcement the results without further unnecessary delay.

British Nationals Abroad: Forced Marriage

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of its emergency loan policy on economically vulnerable British citizens seeking to leave forced marriages abroad; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK is a world-leader in the fight to tackle out the brutal practice of forced marriage, with our joint Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Forced Marriage Unit which leads efforts to combat it both at home and abroad. This joint unit was established in 2005 because the Government of the day recognised that British citizens who are forced into marriage constituted a category of exceptionally vulnerable people in need of specific help.After careful consideration, the Foreign Sectetary and I have decided that victims of forced marriage who are helped to return to the UK by the Forced Marriage Unit will no longer be asked to take out a loan for their repatriation costs.From now on, none of those who are assisted by the Forced Marriage Unit - and would previously have been offered a loan - will have to cover the costs of their repatriation. Where possible, the Government will continue to seek to ensure the costs fall on the perpetrators by means of Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs).

Department for International Development

Pakistan: Human Rights

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the UK Government takes to ensure that UK aid is not used to support military, security and intelligence authorities in Pakistan allegedly involved in the enforced disappearance of people in that country.

Alistair Burt: HMG makes robust use of oversees security and justice assessment (OSJAs) process to manage any risks arising from security and justice assistance delivered overseas.The UK’s work in Pakistan is focused on peace and stability, making democracy work, jobs and growth and providing basic services.Across Government, through the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF) UK aid is used to support the reform of justice institutions and the development of provincial rule of law strategies, improving Pakistan’s capacity to counter terrorism, deal with organised crime, supporting the work of civilian and military agencies to handle Improvised Explosive Devices, and strengthening Mutual Legal Assistance.

Pakistan: Overseas Aid

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what consultation his Department has undertaken with local communities prior to activities being (a) finalised and (b) implemented under her Department's Pakistan Economic Corridors Programme.

Alistair Burt: Local communities are consulted prior to road projects being finalised. Asian Development Bank (ADB) consultants engage communities in preparing Land Acquisition and Resettlement Plans which ensure compensation for displacement and loss of livelihoods. During implementation ADB experts continue to consult communities and ensure the activities are delivered using the ADB’s environmental and social policies. Local communities are also consulted on design and implementation of community centres constructed along improved roads.

Israel: Palestinians

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of the recently reported reductions in funding from the US to co-existence projects in Israel-Palestine on peace efforts in that region.

Alistair Burt: DFID is aware of reports that USAID is currently unable to support coexistence projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The UK supports coexistence work both within green line Israel and across the Israel-OPTs boundary. All types of coexistence work can be valuable and help to foster greater understanding between communities from both sides of the conflict. Ultimately, however, the only way to achieve lasting coexistence is through a negotiated two-state solution that ends the occupation and delivers peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Developing Countries: Nutrition

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure nutritional support is considered by all teams and divisions within her Department.

Alistair Burt: 'Saving lives, investing in future generations and building prosperity – the UK’s Global Nutrition Position Paper’, which was published in October 2017, committed DFID to strengthen the breadth and quality of its nutrition-sensitive, multi-sector investments.Since the Paper was published, DFID has for example developed a strategic approach to integrating nutrition into relevant areas of its economic development work. This includes supporting private sector investment within different parts of the food system in order to make safe nutritious foods more affordable and accessible to poor people, in particular women, adolescent girls and children under five.

Developing Countries: Nutrition

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to ensure the sharing of expertise on nutrition with Governments in her Department’s priority countries.

Alistair Burt: DFID has been enabling governments that are part of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement to access technical expertise in nutrition since 2012 through the Maximising Quality for Scaling Up Nutrition and the Technical Assistance for Nutrition programmes. As part of this, tools and guidance have been developed for use by government as they design, implement and monitor multi-sector nutrition policies. Both programmes have also supported learning and exchange between governments that are facing similar challenges. More recently, DFID’s support has enabled sharing of good practice on addressing malnutrition in fragile and conflict-affected countries such as Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, strengthening national data systems and improving budget analysis.

Department for Education

Oxford University: Disciplinary Proceedings

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with the University of Oxford on its governance following the suspension of the Dean of Christ Church cathedral and college Oxford; and if he will make a statement.

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the University of Oxford on the effect on its (a) national and (b) international reputation of the suspension by Christ Church of its Dean.

Chris Skidmore: There have been no discussions. Higher education providers’ governance arrangements are matters for the Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of higher education in England.The OfS requires all registered providers to meet the public interest governance principles, which include that all providers must operate openly, honestly, accountably and with integrity and demonstrate the values appropriate to be recognised as an English higher education provider.If providers fall short, the OfS has powers to intervene. The OfS considers a range of factors before deciding whether an intervention is required, including reputational damage to the higher education sector caused by the actions of a provider registered with the OfS.

Day Care: Nottinghamshire

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the take-up of funded childcare for (a) two year olds and (b) three year olds among (i) disadvantaged and (ii) non-disadvantaged households in Nottinghamshire.

Nadhim Zahawi: ​The department does not hold data that breaks down take-up of the childcare entitlements by disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged households.Disadvantaged 2 year olds are eligible for 15 hours a week (over 38 weeks of the year) of free early education if they meet the criteria set out at: https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds?step-by-step-nav=f237ec8e-e82c-4ffa-8fba-2a88a739783b. As of January 2018, there were 2,080 2 year olds accessing this entitlement in Nottinghamshire, 72% of those eligible which is in line with the national average for take up of this entitlement.All 3 and 4 year olds are also eligible for 15 hours a week (over 38 weeks of the year) of free early education. As of January 2018, 9,060 3 year olds in Nottinghamshire were accessing the universal offer. This is 100% of 3 year olds and higher than the national average for 3 year old take-up, which is 92%.​Since September 2017, working parents of 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to 30 hours free childcare a week (over 38 weeks of the year), supporting a wide-range of parents to enter work or increase their work hours. In the first year of delivery, over 340,000 children in England benefited from a 30 hours childcare place, with over 6185 children accessing this entitlement in Nottinghamshire.

Nurseries: Ashfield

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of nursery providers in Ashfield constituency are rated as outstanding or good by Ofsted.

Nadhim Zahawi: This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the right hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Pre-School Education: Ashfield

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children in Ashfield constituency who are (a) eligible and (b) not eligible for free school meals have achieved school readiness standards at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage in 2018.

Nadhim Zahawi: ​The requested data is shown in the attached table.



205883_Children_Achieving_in_Early_Years
(PDF Document, 14.77 KB)

Schools: Standards

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary age children in (i) Ashfield, (ii) Nottinghamshire and (iii) England that attend a school rated (A) outstanding and (B) good by Ofsted.

Nick Gibb: The attached table shows the proportion of children in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire and England, that attended primary and secondary schools rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, as of 31 August 2018. Ofsted published these statistics on their website on 29 November 2018. The Ofsted inspection data shows, that as of 31 August 2018, the proportion of children attending primary schools rated as Outstanding in Ashfield was 14%, in Nottinghamshire was 15% and in England was 19%. The data further shows that the proportion of children attending secondary schools rated as Outstanding in Ashfield was 0%, in Nottinghamshire was 30% and in England was 27%. The Ofsted inspection data also shows, that as of 31 August 2018, the proportion of children attending primary schools rated as Good in Ashfield was 65%, in Nottinghamshire was 69% and in England was 67%. The data further shows that the proportion of children attending secondary schools rated as Good in Ashfield was 93%, in Nottinghamshire was 62% and in England was 52%.



205885_Good_Outstanding_Ashfield_Notthinghamshire_
(PDF Document, 515.19 KB)

Universities: Finance

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the financial viability of UK universities after the UK leaves the EU.

Chris Skidmore: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education meets with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other cabinet ministers regularly to discuss the Department for Education agenda.

Universities: Debts

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the article entitled University debt: credit crunch looms as debt spirals, published by the Times on 3 January 2018, what estimate he has made of the levels of debt of UK Universities; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Skidmore: ​Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency for the most recent financial year available (2016/17) shows that UK universities’ external borrowing totalled £11.8 billion, equivalent to roughly 33% of sector income.[1]In the new higher education (HE) regulatory framework, the Office for Students has responsibilities to monitor and assess the financial viability and sustainability of registered HE providers in England.  [1] External borrowing as defined by Higher Education Statistics Agency: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c16031/key_financial_indicators.

Church Commissioners

Cathedrals: Music

Adam Holloway: To ask the Right Honourable Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what duty does (a) the Church of England and (b) cathedrals and abbeys have to cathedral choristers with long-term medical conditions under disability discrimination legislation; and if she will make a statement.

Dame Caroline Spelman: The Church of England comprises a large number of legally separate institutions, which includes Cathedrals, Parochial Church Councils and Diocesan Boards of Finance. Each Cathedral, as an independent legal entity, is required to comply with the Equality Act 2010 (the “Act”) and so has a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons in accordance with the requirements of the Act. This duty applies in relation to a Cathedral chorister who has a disability for the purposes the Act (whether or not the disability is due to a long-term medical condition). However, there is no separate legal duty placed on cathedrals in relation to child choristers as a specific group. A cathedral has a duty to make reasonable adjustments to enable all persons with a disability to have physical access to the cathedral. As the Act does not override other legislation, such as listed building or planning legislation, the Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Division has produced a guidance note for cathedrals which specifically addresses this issue: http://www.churchcare.co.uk/images/access_and_disabled_people.pdF. Common reasonable adjustments made by cathedrals include the removal of pews to allow greater flexibility of seating and use of space and the addition of ramps and/or the levelling of internal floors. The duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Act rests with individual cathedrals. What constitutes reasonable adjustment in the situation of choristers will depend on the nature of the particular disability and what may be considered to be reasonable in the circumstances. I understand that several cathedrals have successfully integrated choristers with disabilities into their choirs.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Brexit

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department is spending on a public information campaign to prepare people for the potential effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

David Rutley: The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU Exit. We have developed a cross-departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit. Information on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal data transparency releases.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Department for Exiting the European Union: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many projects his Department has put on hold due to the requirements of planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department for Exiting the European Union’s priority continues to be leading on the Government’s preparations for leaving the EU, in both a deal and a ‘no deal’ scenario.DExEU has led on coordinating the Government’s preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal, and these preparations have been underway for over two years and are well planned. Therefore, DExEU have not put any projects on hold.Delivering the settlement negotiated with the EU remains our top priority and is the best way of avoiding a ‘no deal’ scenario.

Trade Agreements

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, on what date the Agreement between the Government, the Kingdom of Norway, Iceland and the Principality of Liechtenstein announced on 20 December 2018 was finalised.

Chris Heaton-Harris: We informed Parliament on 20 December about the agreement we have reached with Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, to protect citizens’ rights and resolve separation issues as the UK exits the EU. The agreement will be concluded and signed before exit day. Alongside the EU Withdrawal Agreement, it will be legislated for through the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill.

Brexit

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether the Government has given formal notification of the UK's intention to withdraw from the 2004 European Economic Area Agreement pursuant to Article 127 of that Agreement.

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether the Government has had recent discussions with the other contracting parties to the European Economic Area Agreement on the provisions of Article 127 of that Agreement.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Our legal position is that Article 127 does not need to be triggered for the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement to cease to have effect. This is because the EEA Agreement only applies to the UK in its capacity as an EU Member State. Therefore, in the absence of any further action, the EEA Agreement will no longer operate in respect of the UK when we leave the EU.We have regular discussions with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein on all aspects of our withdrawal from the EU. The Government informed Parliament on the 20th December about the agreement reached with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein to resolve the issues arising with those countries as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU.

Department for Exiting the European Union: Brexit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department continues to recruit talent from across the civil service, the wider public sector and the private sector. The Department for Exiting the European Union has over 700 staff working with other government departments on all aspects of EU Exit policy. There is no specific division between the various aspects of EU Exit policy work as there is necessary overlap to support all the objectives of the Department.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Attorney General, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

Robert Buckland: HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March. This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.The Attorney General’s Office and the Law Officers’ Departments did not require additional funding for EU Exit in 2018/19. Planning work for EU Exit is being undertaken within existing resources.

Wales Office

Wales Office: Brexit

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.

Nigel Adams: HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540:www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/.This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year. Work to prepare for a successful EU exit is a key priority for the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. The Office holds no estimate of what it has spent on no deal exit preparations which can be readily separated from other EU exit and devolution work.

University College of North Wales: Chemistry

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with representatives from Bangor University on the effect of that university's proposed closure of its chemistry department on the development of skills in North Wales as set out in the North Wales Growth Deal; and if will he make a statement.

Alun Cairns: We have regular discussions with Universities in North Wales regarding the North Wales Growth Deal, and the UK Government Minister for Wales recently visited Bangor University on 15 November 2018. However, growth deals are locally led and it is for the region to determine the impact of such developments on their proposals.

Wales Office: Brexit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

Nigel Adams: Work to prepare for a successful EU exit is a key priority for the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. The Office was allocated additional EU exit funding to create five new posts for this financial year.

Ministry of Justice

CAFCASS: Training

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how often Cafcass professionals undergo mandatory specialist training on domestic abuse.

Lucy Frazer: Cafcass provides all social work staff who join with specialist training on domestic abuse. Cafcass has a range of tools for identifying domestic abuse, assessing its impact and making recommendations to the court about programmes to address perpetrator behaviour and the implications for child arrangements.Guidance and programmes have been developed in collaboration with a range of organisations with specialist knowledge of domestic abuse. In addition to training, Cafcass has: monthly ‘Learning and Development Bulletins’ highlighting recent learning; ‘knowledge alerts’ that are shared when new practices are in place; ‘development days’ for teams on relevant topics; eLearning (via Cafcass’ eLearning platform which includes learning specific to domestic abuse) and; the Cafcass Library which provides up-to-date information.Cafcass has recently made several commitments to improve training around domestic abuse. Cafcass has commissioned additional training from Barnardo’s on the domestic violence risk identification matrix tool, with a view to considering how this material can complement the Cafcass domestic abuse pathway. Cafcass also works closely with Respect on best practice for working with perpetrators as part of national commissioning of perpetrator programmes.

Young Offenders

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of children in secure institutions were on average confined to their cells for more than 22 hours a day in each of the last five years.

Edward Argar: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) do not hold the specific information requested centrally but are currently reviewing how segregation data is collected across each establishment in the Youth Estate. However, in answering PQ 141024, we did provide a breakdown of the total number of hours young people spent in segregation in each Young Offender Institution, where data is available, over the last 5 years.The safety and welfare of young people in our care is our priority. That is why there are strict safeguards on segregation, which is only used as a last resort when someone is likely to cause harm to themselves or others. We are recruiting more staff and investing in enhanced support units for the most vulnerable offenders, so young people have the support they need to turn away from crime and contribute to society.

Prosecutions

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful prosecutions were made under section 130 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each territorial police force area in each of the last 10 years.

Rory Stewart: The information is not held centrally by the department, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Cabinet Office

Lutfur Rahman

Frank Field: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Government Minister authorised the press statement issued by the Cabinet Office Press Department on 15 July 2018 on the legal costs associated with the Tower Hamlets Election Court case against Lutfur Rahman.

Chloe Smith: In order to satisfy the high volume and varied nature of media queries in a prompt manner, not all responses issued by departmental spokespeople to journalists are required to be individually approved by ministers. Information is routinely provided by government media officers to help journalists understand the policies and the background of the department’s policy

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants in his Department are currently working on planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how many have been moved from other projects to work on those plans.

Mr David Lidington: Departments continually review workforce plans, reprioritise and assess changing needs, which includes identification and cessation of non-priority work where appropriate. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU Exit Implementation is carried out to high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of government. The Cabinet Office has staff working on EU exit implementation for a range of scenarios in the interests of preparedness, however the percentage of time spent on exiting the EU without a deal is not recorded or easily accessible.

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many projects his Department has put on hold due to the requirements of planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Mr David Lidington: The Government’s policy is for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union with a negotiated deal. The Cabinet Office, like other Departments, is continually looking at and reviewing workforce plans, reprioritising and assessing changing needs. We expect our ‘no deal’ preparations will not be required, but we will prepare responsibly to ensure the smoothest exit in all outcomes.

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Helen Goodman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the accounting officer for his Department has sought a written ministerial direction for expenditure on contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Mr David Lidington: The Cabinet Office Accounting Officer has not sought a Ministerial Direction for expenditure on contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Civil Servants: Greater London

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil servants were born in London.

Mr David Lidington: Information on the proportion of Civil Servants born in London is not held centrally.

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Tom Brake: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what cost his Department has incurred to the public purse by providing public information on the potential effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chloe Smith: The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU Exit. We have developed a cross-departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit. Information on the costs associated with this campaign will be released in due course as part of normal data transparency releases.